Candidate: DeVore makes excuses

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore’s Democratic challenger is quick to ask a reasonable question: Why is he, a Democrat in America’s most conservative county, running for Assembly against what appear to be impossible odds?

“Well, the simple answer is, because I live here,” Lake Forest attorney Michael Glover said. “I guess everyone has their Don-Quixote-, slay-the-dragon kind of story.”

The former Kansas legislator said his seven years in the Kansas Statehouse, along with the “sense of justice” he acquired as a prosecutor in Lawrence, Kan., affords him a unique public persona that embodies 2008’s biggest buzz words: “experience” and “change.”

“In California, no one in the house has served more than six years — you can’t — but I’ve served seven,” he said. “You could say, ‘Kansas is a lot different than California,’ but, if you’ve been to one sausage factory, you’ve seen them all.

“Believe me,” he adds. “I know how it works up there.”

Glover, who also ran in 2006, was quick to assure fiscal conservatives that his experience defending employers from worker’s compensation suits would serve him well in Sacramento.

“If I’m elected to Assembly, I’m not going to go up there with my first thought as, ‘How can I spend your money?’” he said. “It’s more of a, ‘Why do you want my client to give you money?’ approach. There are legitimate cases and my job is to ... separate the wheat from the chaff.”

“We balanced the budget every year in Kansas, and because of my experience in saving clients money, you can trust me on tax and spending issues.”

Glover also took time to levy some criticism at his opponent, characterizing him as an ineffectual representative in a minor party that has failed to provide solutions to his constituents.

“DeVore has been going for the past four years, and DeVore will tell you, ‘Oh, [the deficit] is not my fault — those Democrats are just throwing away money up there and I’m pushing the limited government, no tax button and by God, you better send me back up there,” he said.

Then Glover directly addressed his opponent, saying his approach to the state’s fiscal crisis isn’t working.

“Chuck, the state is broke, we’re in debt $14 billion, we have prisons that are upside down, schools upside down, and you’ve come up with no solution other than ‘no’ — and ‘no’ is not a solution.”

DeVore’s office issued a brief statement when asked to respond to Glover’s criticisms.